“Now that you have so foolishly revealed your true self, I can protect my subjects from you!” Celestia flew up to the chapel’s ceiling, her blazing horn filling the room with brilliant sunlight. The light gathered and narrowed into a single blinding beam, and shot down at the changeling queen.
Twilight grinned with glee until she realized the intruder’s beam was pushing back Celestia’s one. The princess looked as shocked as Twilight felt. Green light filled the chapel as the last of Celestia’s beam was pushed back into her horn and a blast of viridian light slammed the bested princess to the floor. Celestia’s right wing twisted sickeningly, trapped between her body and the chapel’s stone tiles, and the acrid smell from her burnt horn filled the chapel, overpowering the scents of the flowers as thoroughly as Chrysalis’s magic had overpowered hers.
Twilight rushed to Celestia’s side —
— Twilight’s galloping legs entangled themselves with her sheets and she rolled off her bed, yelping as she landed flat on her face.
Spike walked into the room, “Again?”
Twilight responded with a resigned “Yeah,” as she struggled to free herself from her blanket and bedsheets.
Twilight and Spike were on the way to Sofas & Quills when a distantly‐accented voice called out, “Oh hey, Twilight!”
“Kerfuffle! Thanks for coming over.”
“Hah! It’s nothin’. Ya must be Spike.”
He bowed to the mare, “Spike at your service.”
“I’m visitin’ Rarity for a few days. She’s tol’ me all about’cha.”
“Only good things, I hope.”
“Dont’cha know it! Here, I made a hat for ya.” She dug through her bag and produced a violet knit cap.
“Sweet!”
“Kerfuffle is one of our friends from Hope Hollow.”
Spike asked, “How is Hope Hollow doing?”
“Much better thanks to the Ponyville gals.”
Twilight tilted her head, “‘The Ponyville gals’?”
“After ya left, ya were still the talk of the town. We needed a phrase for the six of ya, and that just kinda established itself.”
“Huh. We have some things on our plate right now, but later —”
“Rarity, Fluttershy, and I are havin’ dinner at Café Hay.”
“We’ll be there!”